Thursday, October 27th 2011
Gigabyte X79 UD3 and UD5 Final Design Motherboards Detailed
Here are pictures of the release-grade revision (1.0) of Gigabyte's socket LGA2011 motherboards in its main linuep, the GA-X79-UD3 and GA-X79-UD5. These are the release-grade 1.0 revisions, that are redesigned for X79 chipset with just six SATA ports (doing away with SAS). With the LGA2011 motherboard lineup, Gigabyte is doing away with the "UD7" model, in its segment there is GA-X79-OC. We saw this coming, because UD7 was meant to be an overclocking motherboard identifier. On the company website, for example, the product page of GA-X58A-UD7 (2.0) shows GA-X58A-OC as a "newer model". The GA-X79-UD3 is poised to be the most affordable LGA2011 motherboard from Gigabyte, while the GA-X79-UD5 offers some premium connectivity and memory expansion features.
The GA-X79-UD3 uses a simple 8+1 phase VRM to power the LGA2011 CPU. The memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per channel. There are four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which two are x16 capable, and all four are x8 capable. There are two PCIe x1, and surprisingly, a legacy PCI slot (uncommon for LGA2011 platform). All six SATA ports from the X79 chipset are assigned as internal ports: two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black). Three Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s controllers provide four additional internal ports (gray), and two eSATA 6 Gb/s. There are just four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, and two via internal header. 8+2 channel HD audio, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and one gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of the GA-X79-UD3.
The GA-X79-UD5, on the other hand, uses a different PCB from that of the UD3, with more room for memory expansion thanks to eight DDR3 DIMM slots (two per channel). It uses a beefier CPU VRM, with 14-phases and POSCAP capacitors. Again, the memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. Unlike the UD3, the GA-X79-UD5 compromises with expansion slots. The UD3 uses all seven expansion slot bays on an ATX case, but the UD5 uses just six. What's more surprising here is that the scapegoat isn't the legacy PCI slot, but a PCI-Express 3.0! This board, unlike the UD3, has just three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which two are x16 capable, and all three are x8 capable. Storage connectivity is similar to the UD3, with two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black) from the X79 PCH, four additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports (gray) and two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports from Marvell-made controllers. It has the same number of USB 3.0 ports as the UD3: 2 (rear) and 2 (header). Other connectivity is identical, except that this board also has Firewire.
Source:
OCaholic.ch
The GA-X79-UD3 uses a simple 8+1 phase VRM to power the LGA2011 CPU. The memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per channel. There are four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which two are x16 capable, and all four are x8 capable. There are two PCIe x1, and surprisingly, a legacy PCI slot (uncommon for LGA2011 platform). All six SATA ports from the X79 chipset are assigned as internal ports: two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black). Three Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s controllers provide four additional internal ports (gray), and two eSATA 6 Gb/s. There are just four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, and two via internal header. 8+2 channel HD audio, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and one gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of the GA-X79-UD3.
63 Comments on Gigabyte X79 UD3 and UD5 Final Design Motherboards Detailed
You'd use them as cache how? If you're talking about creating a ramdisk then using it as the swap file I could see that, otherwise huge amounts of RAM either sit and do nothing or get used in non-32 bit applications.
I see the draw of the 32GB of RAM. Honestly, the UD5 is what I'm eyeing. It just doesn't make sense for everybody.
- Downloads/torrents. Especially if they're compressed. (expand from ram to disk, instead of disk to disk).
- When my needs go beyond a memory table, I'll sometimes move the entire database over to a RAMdisk to perform the operations.
And even after carving out 8-12GB for RAMdisk, there's still immense room for Superfetch to cache.
That's how I personally go about it. Let the built-in method for caching do it's thing and use RAMdisks for temporary purposes. Other people keep persistent RAMdisks, so options such as application installation open up for them.
And considering the price of ram nowadays, with 8GB costing as little as $60, the time where users could complain about memory usage of an app is O-V-E-R. Most users on boards like the ones in the OP will end up with AT LEAST 8GB when running in quad-channel mode, and the 75MB of KillerNIC "bloatware" is hardly something to complain about wit h8GB of ram, nevermind it's not even needed to make the NIC work.
Making comments like that is like saying that XP is still the OS to use...which it most definitely isn't. Sound like you need to catch up with current technologies.
btw, you're a lying cheating scum. i let all things you said slip through in the other thread. i remember you saying you're the biggest AMD fanboy ever. then you got a 480 SLI after you got sick of their drivers, which you ditched back for 6900 cards. remember the time you got banned from here? this should be enough
I know my opinion changes. That's what happens with experience...and being 100% honest all the time means that over time, of course my opinion will change. You may call it lying and cheating, but really, it's just honesty.
I got banned by Mussels, for what was basically a personal disagreement. Of course I remember, because all the history is saved here on the forum, and every time i visit my user CP, I see those infractions. I am more than willing to show them:
And yes, I change hardware often. That's the name of the game as a reviewer. My opinion is based 100% on real-life experience with the parts I talk about:
That also includes parts not in retail...that you'll find nowhere else...yet:
Thanks for the feedback.
:rockout:
i agree with cadavega, the Sniper 2 really does perform better than other boards in games with sound, and when online. its very very very very very very rare that one board will outperform another in gaming like that, and its due to the fact that resources for the NIC and Audio being offloaded from the CPU and memory. Their latency is lower becuase both have their own memory, and the component selection on the Sniper 2 isn't cheap either.
An no, I have a maximus 4 gene-z and a sniper 2 i compared their audio performance, Sniper 2 was ahead of the UD7 and Maximus 4 Gene-Z, both of those have the same ALC889. maximus uses a creative software pack and ALC889, that is a gimmick, to put a XF-I sticker on a ALC889 LOL.
The NIC isn't best thing, it can't change much, but it does have a nice software suite, and my local ping is lowered by it. But to be honest if it wasn't on this board i wouldn't buy it.
Then get to the fact that there are no PCi-E lanes being taken up by the devices, and then the fact that they are hard wired to the ports , no need to go through a PCI-E switch/ or MUX to handle resources.
To you it might be like a gimmick, but to anyone who knows what they are talking about its price might be high, but the audio is not a gimmick.
Anyway, it's the G1.Sniper2 that won me over for Gigabyte, and has me interested in these boards. The G1.Sniper2 is pretty damn good. As a gaming board, it's not the bet overclocker...Gigabyte has other boards for that. I use an amp and "high-end" bookshelf speakers with my PC, so the audio part really matters, and the X-Fi works great, much better than my experience with X-Fi cards a couple fo years ago, when driver issues were still a big thing.
I do get higher download speeds with the KillerNIC, for whatever reason. Not too sure why, but it does seem to work.
But of course, lie k Isaid, that's my own experience. I tend to not say much about stuff i don't have. ;)
I deducted points from the Sniper2 for the ram issues, and for the auto-overclock when XMP was disabled. Newest release BIOS(F4) removes the auto-OC thing, so that's solved, but there are still some outstanding issues with ram, which can be said about most boards.
I gotta commend Gigabyte for dealing with the XMP thing with the very next BIOS.;)
if you're going to talk audio, offer benches like for harmonic distortion. you cant properly test audio by listening. doh.
Guitarists will spend countless thousands of dollars in search of "tone".
Long before there were ways to record, humans understood the importance of audio reproduction, or recordings would have never been invented in the first place.
If you cannot tell the difference between one audio solution and the next using a proper amp and capable speakers, then your hearing is damaged.
I personally don't need benchmarks, at all. I'm sorry you've damaged your ears and require such things to tell the difference.
And just so we are clear, what I am refering to is often called "absolute pitch", or "perfect pitch".
Here's a link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch
you seem to really have a problem with everything, so you like anything?
Is there a UD7 too, Steven? Have you heard anything?
UD3 for OCer/Power user on a budget, basically the UD7 but without a lot of the OC features
UD5 for workstation/OC with some buttons
UD7 for hard core OCer and someone who wants all the features
G1 Assassin 2 for the hardcore gamer
most of the boards are 4-dimmed as it helps the memory clocking, i mean if it was good for OCing in quad channel to use 4 DIMMs on one side, then they would have done that, but spec is starting to show that the trace distance really has a large impact, that is why you see that no board seems to have extra distance between the socket and the DIMMs like on previous platforms as well. I am guessing this is why only the UD7 has 8 DIMMs.
That is how I think they laid it out, of course there will be more models. If you notice tho, this time the Assassin 2 isn't ATX-XL, they kept it e-ATX so it fits in most cases.
The UD7 is ATX-XL with 4 -way and the UD3 is 4-way in ATX, For the UD7 they use ATX-XL so give more spacing between the DIMMs and the first PCi-E slot for insulation purposes and such.
My other observation is that GB has switched over to using IR digital PWMs, IR bought Chil a little while ago, and took Chil;s tech and has been selling its own digital PWMs, and still has Chil selling theirs. basically same PWm with different name.
now the PWM used on this board, and if you notice ASUS is using Digi+ II, same thing here, these boards use an unreleased VRD12/12.5 certified IR PWM, and it seems like for the memory they are using some of IRs very high quality powerstages, i will go over the new tech in my review or even preview of the board. i am just waiting on the boards now.
you'd come up with anything to make yourself look right. i love how you changed the subject to your room and review parts when you got called the biggest AMD fanboy, said with your own words.i do, i'll chalk up my years of experience to your bs. that Sniper board is an overpriced piece of crap. you can get a Maximus IV extreme with a cheap intel nic and a sound card. and let me tell you, it will be MUCH better.
on top of that I have actually used both boards, you haven't.
your years of experiences, please don't get into this with me, i used to review here 5-6 years before you joined.
However, like any professional, I seperate my personal opinion from my professional opinion. The fact you think it's a big deal is amusing, to say the least.All opinions are subjective..that's a given. However, I think it's more important to report user experience in some cases, as raw numbers don't truly tell you all that much. Fact of teh matter is that any result will be coloured by the recording medium, and more often than not, is not a true representation of actual audio reproduction.And you are? Both Steven and I are product reviewers, that companies trust to propmote their products accurately. This is why we state things as fact like we do, and both Steven and I seem to hold the same values, so we get along pretty good too, as well as sharing opinions on hardware. That what happens when you stick to the facts.
you, on the other hand, are on the offensive. Naturally, you're offensive while being on the offensive. I can take it perosnal, but you know what..that's against forum rules here. Would you like a link? Nevermind, I'll jsut quote for ya:
so my join date puts you on top of me? you reviewed, so what? there're a bunch of better choices than the sniper. and that's a fact.
But that doesn't really make one product any better than another. The Sniper may not be the right choice for you...that's fine...but clearly it's right for others. Personally, I use one everyday, so it's perfect for me. Meets my needs exactly, running 16 GB in 4x 4GB sticks @ just over 1900MHz, with just 1.1v on the VTT. Not every board can do that.
Anyway this is a news thread, and this off-topic discussion doesn't really have place here. You're more than welcome to post your comments about the G1.Sniper2 in the comment scetion of my review of it.;)
Here's a link:
www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/G1_Sniper2/
However, from the boards that I have, the G1.Sniper is one of FEW boards that can do this with these sticks, and my test CPU.
I actually haven't seen many people clocking 16GB at once. Got some links?
And don't get me wrong, you can knock the hardware all you want. That's your opinion, and is very valid(and I do report valid user comments to the OEMS, in hopes changes wil leb made to meet user needs). Taking it personal, on the other hand, isn't something we do here on TPU. I personally don't have any issues with stuff like that, but it is directly against forum rules, and as respect to the other users and staff here, I like to stick to those rules. Makes for better conversation.
about clocking 16 gb at once, you're coming up with bs again. give it up, 8gb is more than enough. and if you need 16, you still can clock up.
16GB is NOT ENOUGH for some users. I agree, that the amount is far more than most would need. Even 8GB is too much...1366 had it right with 6, for sure. However, when trying to push boards to the limit, and testing whether they can meet their claims, doing things like running 16GB whether used or not is kinda of par for the course, because you and I both know that people are gonna do it, whether it makes sense or not. Even the need to overclock is questionable with today's CPUs, as high performance as they are. Then, when a user reads my reviews, and wants to know how they behave with 16GB kits, they'll have their answer.
This kit is for X79 boards, anyway. Same sticks that I showed a single one of above. More than likely, I'll get one of these boards in the OP from Gigabyte to test, and they'll have to run these 4x 4GB sticks, as they are relatively cheap, and X79 is all about quad channel. I have 2 GB sticks to use as well as some other sticks from other OEMs. I epxect these sticks to run 2133 MHZ on X79 though.